All language subtitles for AeriRA.XLSUB

north carolina...

it's one of america's original colonies...

where humans took the first powered flight...

and breathtaking beauty rings

from the highest peaks
in the east.

it was here where america's
most famous pirate met his fate

and a barrier island
still holds the secrets

of what may be the nation's
oldest unsolved mystery.

aerial north carolina
journeys from the outer banks...

across inland forests...

to a mountain that's guided
travelers for centuries.

it was here
where four brave students

changed the course of history...

tobacco is king...

and confederate troops

marched through the pitch
of pine forests.

this is the tarheel state.

north carolina.

roanoke island.

it's the site

of one of the greatest mysteries
of the colonial era:

north carolina's lost colony.

native americans
inhabited this island

as far back as 10,000 years ago.

the first european
to set foot here

was italian explorer
giovanni da verrazano,

who was sent by france

to chart america's
atlantic coastline in 1524.

but it was england

who first tried to establish
a colony on this wild island.

with queen elizabeth's blessing,

sir walter raleigh
sent a party in 1584

to scout the carolina coast
for potential sites.

when they saw roanoke island,

they thought they'd found
the perfect place.

the weather was mild
and the rich soil abundant.

so the following year,

just over 100 men--scientists,
painters and explorers--

landed here,

eager to establish england's
first foothold in america.

this ship is a replica
of the elizabeth,

one of the seven
merchant vessels

that delivered this band
of hopeful settlers.

its passengers thought
it would be a one-way trip,

but things didn't go as planned.

the men quickly
ran out of supplies,

clashed with native americans,

and fled back to england
just one year later.

in 1587, a new group--
119 men, women, and children--

tried to make another go
at settling roanoke island.

but when a supply ship
arrived here three years later,

they found a chilling sight.

the entire colony had vanished.

the settlers' houses
had all been taken down

and their earthwork fort,
which stood here, was deserted.

the only clue left behind

was the name of a nearby island,
croatoan,

carved into a wooden post.

so what happened

to north carolina's
notorious lost colony?

were they massacred
by native americans?

or were they assimilated
into a friendlier tribe

on croatoan island?

the puzzle has fascinated
historians for centuries,

and the public, too.

every summer night,
here at the waterside theater,

players reenact the tale

in a performance called
"the lost colony."

the colony is also commemorated

at the island's
elizabethan gardens,

named for the monarch
who sent the doomed settlers.

a plaque at the entrance reads,

"from this hallowed ground

they walked away through
the dark forest into history."

some of the live oaks
in this garden

are over 400 years old--

old enough to know the secret
of what happened

to the lost colony
of north carolina.

roanoke lies on north carolina's
outer banks--

175 miles of barrier islands

lined by long stretches
of sandy beach.

millions of visitors
flock here every year,

drawn to the mild climate
and surfside cottages.

but life here is at the mercy
of the mighty atlantic.

no beachfront structure
is immune

to the ocean's
destructive force,

not even this house
on cape hatteras,

made famous in the 2008 movie
"nights in rodanthe."

when this home,
called serendipity,

was built in 1988,

it stood 400 feet
from the ocean.

but constant pounding
from storm waves

has slowly eaten away the beach.

the final blow came
in november of 2009,

when a powerful nor'easter

nearly swallowed
the house whole.

the property was condemned
and slated for demolition.

at the 11th hour,

a couple stepped in
to save serendipity

and are in the process
of restoring it

to its hollywood glory.

nature's fury
will continue to rage,

but that won't
keep tourists away.

so the federal government

has created the 30,000-acre
cape hatteras national seashore

to help keep these beaches wild.

the 75-mile stretch of coast
is off-limits to developers

and remains home to
a rich diversity of wildlife.

the hatteras seashore serves
as a major avian migratory stop

and provides crucial
feeding and nesting grounds

to nearly 400 bird species.

at the southern tip
of the national seashore

is a place with an ominous past.

this is one of the most remote
places in north carolina--

ocracoke island.

the only way for most people
to get here is by ferry.

its seclusion is what first
drew settlers to the island

and later, one of america's
most notorious outlaws.

his name was edward teach,

better known
as the pirate blackbeard.

patrolling these waters
on his ship the adventure,

blackbeard plundered
the merchant vessels

that passed through
the ocracoke inlet,

one of the busiest shipping
waterways of the 18th century.

and it was here, in 1718,
where he met his fate

when a royal navy captain
lured blackbeard into an ambush,

cut off his head,

and dumped his body
into the sound.

legend has it,

blackbeard's ghost
still roams ocracoke island,

searching for
his long lost head.

fishermen and surfers alike are
drawn to north carolina's coast,

but there is danger
beneath these waters,

especially for big ships.

a treacherous 12-mile-long
sandbar called diamond shoals

lies just off the coast,

conspiring
with powerful ocean currents

to pull ships to their demise.

well over a thousand vessels
have gone down here,

earning the area the nickname,
the graveyard of the atlantic.

the cape hatteras lighthouse

has kept watch
over these perilous waters

since 1870.

it took a hundred laborers

and nearly one and a quarter
million bricks to complete.

standing 210 feet,

it's the tallest brick
lighthouse in north america.

lighthouse keepers
were originally housed

in the frame buildings nearby.

from the top of the tower,

they'd carefully stand watch
over the lamp

all through the night,

that is until 1934,
when the light went electric.

on a clear night,

the beacon
can be seen by sailors

20 nautical miles out at sea.

today, this town
north of cape hatteras

is a humming surfside community.

at the turn of the 20th century,

kitty hawk wasn't much more
than just a place to go fishing.

but two brothers saw
its open space and soft dunes

as the perfect spot

to experiment
with their flying machines.

wilbur and orville wright,
who ran a bicycle shop in ohio,

spent their winters down here.

in wooden shacks like these,
they lived humbly

and worked on a series
of primitive gliders.

in the winter of 1903,

they were finally prepared
to take to the air

in an engine-powered craft.

on december 14th,
after a coin toss,

wilbur won the privilege

of piloting their new
wright flyer down this path,

but instead of catching air,

he oversteered the plane,

which dove into the sand
before it could take off.

three days later,
orville was in the pilot's seat

for his short
but historic flight.

for twelve incredible seconds,
at this exact location,

human flight
went from fantasy to reality.

the wrights' flyer
traveled just 120 feet,

but its impact was felt
around the world.

in the distance,
on big kill devil hill,

stands the 60-foot
wright brothers monument.

dedicated in 1932,
it bears the inscription,

"in commemoration
of the conquest of the air

by the brothers
orville and wilbur wright.

conceived by genius,

achieved
by dauntless resolution

and unconquerable faith."

behind north carolina's
barrier islands,

a very different landscape
emerges.

this is bull neck swamp.

it used to be logging territory,

when timber companies
exploited its forest

for atlantic white cedar.

salvation came in 1996

when carolina state university
purchased the parcel

for use
as a wetlands research site.

today, the bull neck swamp
research forest

also serves as a refuge

for animal species
like coyotes, black bears,

and white-tailed deer.

about 75 miles southwest
of the swamp

lies the second oldest city
in north carolina,

new bern.

named after
the capital of switzerland,

it was first settled
by swiss and german immigrants

in the early 1700s,

in the earliest days
of the colony.

it was here where william tryon,

royal governor of north carolina
at the time,

decided to build
a permanent capital.

he called it tryon palace.

completed in 1770,

the elaborate
georgian style mansion

served as both
a government building

and as tryon's
personal residence,

though the colonists weren't too
happy about paying higher taxes

so their governor
could live in opulence.

ultimately, tryon only got to
live in his palace for a year

before he was made
governor of new york

and moved away.

after the revolution, the palace
served for several years

as the state capital of
an independent north carolina.

and then, after the state
capital had moved to raleigh,

the original palace
went up in flames.

this house is a replica
built in the 1950s,

from the architect's
original plans.

new palace gardens
were also designed.

covering more than 16 acres,

they include three centuries
of north carolina plants.

by the mid-19th century,
the port city of new bern

had grown into
the second largest city

on the north carolina coast--

a strategic target for the north
during the civil war.

in early 1862,

union general ambrose burnside
marched decisively into town,

overpowered the woefully
unprepared confederate troops,

and occupied new bern
for the remainder of the war.

several decades
after the war's end,

new bern became the birthplace
of an american icon.

here on middle street,

a young druggist
named caleb bradham

opened a small pharmacy

with a soda fountain
that served a unique combination

of carbonated water, sugar,
vanilla, cola nuts, and pepsin.

he named it pepsi-cola.

when north carolina's statesmen

decided to move the capital
away from new bern,

they chose a spot very different

from the bustling city
on the coast.

in 1792, the state legislature
sent a committee on a mission

to scout sites
for a new capital.

at the time, raleigh,
in the state's piedmont region,

was nothing
but a lonely outpost.

but state senator joel lane

had a thousand-acre plantation
for sale here,

and he was a terrific salesman.

he graciously took the committee
members to a local tavern

where they indulged in a popular
libation called cherry bounce.

legend has it that they didn't
realize until the next morning

that they had agreed
to buy lane's land.

the new capital was named after
sir walter raleigh,

who'd sent the first colonists
to north carolina

in the 16th century.

the city itself
was modeled after philadelphia,

which at the time,

was the capital
of the united states.

in the middle of the city,
a splendid greek revival dome

crowns a building
more than 170 years old--

the north carolina
state capitol.

its great portico
and massive columns

were all carved
from locally quarried granite.

to get the giant slabs
to the building site,

engineers developed
a special wooden-track railway

with mule-drawn cars.

the first stone went into place
in the summer of 1833,

and the building was completed
seven years later.

inside these walls, in 1861,
after a heated debate,

state legislators made
the most important decision

of their careers,

voting in favor of secession.

the decision was met
with great celebration.

a 100-round artillery salute

rang out
over the capitol grounds.

but the festivities
were short-lived.

just four years later,

the union army
stormed into town,

defeated the confederates,
and occupied raleigh.

the southern capital
was never the same again.

modern-day raleigh is one
of the fastest-growing cities

in the united states,

thanks in large part
to the work going on here

at research triangle park.

founded in 1959,
rtp is a 7,000-acre campus

where researchers, policymakers,
and businesses collaborate

on all kinds of scientific
and high-tech research.

3d ultrasound technology
was developed here,

as well as the ground-breaking
hiv-aids drug, azt.

modern architecture may sprawl

through raleigh's
high-tech hubs,

but neighborhoods
like historic oakwood,

with its well-preserved
victorian buildings,

seem to be straight
from the 19th century.

it wasn't that long ago

that this neighborhood
was in disrepair.

after world war ii,
middle-class families

began fleeing the city
for the suburbs,

abandoning
their once-fashionable homes.

but in the early 1970s,
the tide began to turn back,

and a few renovations

inspired a wave
of neighborhood revitalization.

locals call the area

between raleigh, durham,
and chapel hill

"the triangle."

these aren't just
the biggest cities in the area;

they're also home
to three prominent universities:

north carolina state,

duke,

and the university
of north carolina.

each school has different
academic strengths,

but they all share
one thing in common-

within the last 30 years,

each has won the ncaa
men's basketball championship

at least once.

duke university,

formerly known
as trinity college,

was born
in rural randolph county

in the mid-19th century.

then, in 1892,

a wealthy tobacco farmer
named washington duke

offered up $85,000

to have the college
moved here, to durham.

he considered this city

an emblem
of the progressive "new south"

and a much more fitting place
for the growing school.

in the 1920s,

duke's son james continued
in his father's footsteps,

providing the $19 million
that trinity college needed

to expand into a university.

the school was renamed
duke university.

when designs were being drawn up
for the new campus,

james duke
chose the highest ridge

for the duke university chapel.

it was
the first building planned,

but the last one finished,
in 1935.

topped by a 210-foot-high tower,

the chapel has
77 stained glass windows,

three pipe organs,

and seating
for more than 1,500 people.

today, the seed
that washington duke planted

has grown into one of the
country's leading universities

with over 200 buildings

spread across a thickly forested
8,000-acre campus.

like many cities
in north carolina,

durham was built
on the back of tobacco.

it even earned its nickname,
bull city,

from the name of a smoking
tobacco known as "bull durham."

at baseball parks, the company
advertised its tobacco

on giant bull-shaped signs

placed above
the outfield fences,

right next to the spot
where relief pitchers warmed up.

that's how baseball
got the term "bullpen."

a few miles north of durham

stands
the duke family homestead.

it was here,
in this ramshackle barn,

that young washington duke
first started a tobacco business

that would one day grow into
the american tobacco company,

once the largest tobacco company
in the world.

tobacco has long been a part

of north carolina's
economic history.

in the 1700s, bundles of it
were used as currency.

today it remains the state's
number-one export crop.

but it wasn't always
north carolina's top commodity.

beginning in the 1800s,
cotton was king,

and it reigned
for nearly a hundred years.

but by the 1920s,

the tiny, cotton-eating
boll weevil beetle

that had been plaguing the south

finally arrived
in north carolina

and devoured
the state's cotton industry.

then, in 1978, cotton
finally made a comeback.

the state was the site

of the u.s. department of
agriculture's pilot experiment

to eradicate boll weevils.

and north carolina cotton has
been on the rise ever since.

chapel hill is the third point
on the north carolina triangle

and home to the university of
north carolina at chapel hill,

the first public university
in the country.

when it opened its doors
in 1795,

there were only two professors
and 41 students.

total enrollment today
is nearly 30,000.

campus lore says that students
who drink from this well

on the first day of class

will enjoy straight as
and good fortune

for the rest of the year.

a century ago, it served
a more utilitarian purpose

as the sole source
of drinking water

for the school dorms.

during the civil war,

the university of north carolina
kept its doors open,

calling on wounded warriors
to teach its classes.

silent sam stands as a monument

to those students
who joined the confederate army

and as a memorial
to those 321 alumni

who paid the ultimate price.

he's said to be silent because
even though he has a rifle,

he's carrying no ammunition.

nearby, rising 172 feet,

the morehead patterson
bell tower chimes every hour--

a helpful reminder
for any absent-minded professor

who may have forgotten a watch.

viewing north carolina
from on high,

longleaf pine forests
seem to dominate the landscape,

but these days
this native species

is far less abundant
than it used to be.

today, a major
conservation effort is underway

to restore
north carolina's pines.

these trees don't just make
for a pretty view;

their natural strength
and drought resistance

could help bolster
this landscape

in the face
of global climate change.

set amongst these trees

is another emblematic
north carolina landscape,

only this one
was created by people.

golf may have been born
in scotland,

but north carolinians have
adopted it as their own.

there are 43 courses
here in moore county alone.

the first of these
was pinehurst resort.

it was the brainchild

of boston-born soda fountain
magnate james walker tufts.

back in 1895,

he purchased nearly 6,000 acres
of this land

for a little over
a dollar an acre.

he built two hotels;

first the holly inn,

and then the carolina,

with a master plan of developing
a peaceful retreat

far from the air pollution
of the cities.

but when his guests
took it upon themselves

to start pelting
little white balls

into the surrounding
cow pastures,

tufts decided to build
a proper golf course.

his resort
turned into a golf mecca.

pinehurst has hosted golf's
most legendary icons,

from ben hogan to payne stewart
to tiger woods.

but woods would not always
have been welcome here.

after the civil war,

the american south
enacted jim crow laws,

which mandated that
blacks and whites be separated

in almost all facets
of public life.

at the time,

the seats at this woolworth's
lunch counter in greensboro

were for whites only.

blacks could eat here,
but only standing up--

that is until
four black students

decided to challenged the rules.

david richmond,
franklin mccain,

ezell blair, jr.,
and joseph mcneil

were from the nearby
north carolina agricultural

and technical university,

one of several historically
black colleges in the state.

on february 1, 1960,

they sat down
at the woolworth's lunch counter

and asked for a cup of coffee.

they were refused service,

but returned day after day
with the same request,

and each time
with more and more supporters

sitting by their side.

the movement exploded.

within just a few months, it had
spread to 54 cities nationwide.

woolworth's finally bowed to
the pressure in july of 1960

and decided to desegregate
its lunch counters.

the dream of the greensboro four

had become a reality
for a nation.

a portion of the original
lunch counter is on exhibit

at the smithsonian's national
museum of american history.

as far back as 1766.

their influence can be seen

in the architecture of the
village's historic buildings.

today, this 100-acre village

is considered one of the most
well-preserved historical sites

in the united states.

twenty miles northwest
of winston-salem,

the remnants of the ancient
sauratown mountains

still reach for the sky.

at their heart,
pilot mountain.

a native american tribe
called the saura

once inhabited this land

and called the mountain
jomeokee,

which means
great guide or pilot.

true to its name,

this mighty peak
has served as a guidepost

to generations of travelers
passing this way.

pilot mountain state park,
established in 1968,

is a favorite destination
for hikers.

but the mountain itself may be
better known as the back drop

of native son andy griffith's
1960s tv show.

in the shadow of pilot mountain

sits the town
of mount airy, north carolina,

the inspiration for
the fictional town of mayberry

on "the andy griffith show."

griffith lived here
through the 1940s,

when mount airy was home
to a thriving economy

built on granite quarrying,
tobacco farming,

and furniture making.

by the 1980s,

the factories had fallen quiet
and the mills had closed.

desperate to keep
their town alive,

locals turned to tourism
as a source of income,

and of course, they began
playing up their connection

to the fictional world
of mayberry.

certain places
mentioned in the show

still exist in town,

like the snappy lunch
restaurant.

andy griffith
long denied any connection

between mount airy and mayberry.

but after a 45-year absence,

the actor returned here
for a visit in 2003,

and finally acknowledged,
with a grin,

that his hometown may have
inspired mayberry after all.

leaving the state's
towns and cities behind

is the blue ridge parkway.

this highway was built
as part of a new deal program

meant to keep people working
during the worst of times.

but in the process,

the government created
a thing of beauty.

stretching through
the shenandoah national park

and the great smoky mountains,

the parkway's 469 miles,
rolling from peak to valley,

are some
of the most scenic in the state.

as it winds high up
into the appalachians,

the parkway passes
old pioneer farmsteads

and snow-dusted
mountain meadows.

north carolina's black mountains

claim the tallest peaks
east of the mississippi river.

they aren't actually black.

it's the evergreen forests
that dominate the range

that give them
their dark appearance.

the identity of north carolina's
highest peak

was once the source
of great debate.

standing more
than 6,000 feet tall,

mount mitchell
is named for the man

who settled that question
once and for all.

in the early 1800s,

grandfather mountain
was said to be

the highest peak in the region.

but dr. elisha mitchell,
a professor at unc chapel hill,

disagreed.

after an elaborate
series of calculations

using
barometric pressure readings,

he declared this peak,
not grandfather,

to be the tallest.

but his claim was disputed
by a u.s. senator,

so mitchell took to the mountain
again for more measurements.

this expedition was his last.

along the way,

he slipped and fell
into a waterfall,

was knocked unconscious,
and drowned.

he was later buried on the peak,

and the mountain was named
"mount mitchell" in his honor.

mitchell was ultimately right.

this is the highest peak
in the eastern united states.

a few miles away
lies burnett reservoir,

a lake dammed in 1954

to provide the people of nearby
asheville with drinking water.

nestled
in the blue ridge mountains,

asheville has become a popular
resort town and artists' colony.

but in earlier days,

it was asheville's cool summers
and fresh mountain air

that drew the crowds.

they were said to be the perfect
treatment for tuberculosis.

author f. scott fitzgerald
bought into the claims

of the mountains'
restorative powers.

a known hypochondriac,

fitzgerald came to asheville's
grove park in 1935

with the hopes of curing

his self-diagnosed case
of tuberculosis.

but fitzgerald spent less time
taking in the mountain air

than he did indulging
in local booze and women.

he continued his gallivanting
even after his wife zelda

had been admitted to asheville's
highland mental hospital.

but during his stay
at grove park,

fitzgerald
seemed to be coming undone.

after firing a revolver
in his room

in a half-hearted
suicide attempt,

he had to be accompanied
by a private nurse

whenever he was on the property.

fitzgerald
moved back to hollywood,

but poor zelda
died here in asheville

after a fire broke out
at the mental hospital.

the grove park inn
is still operating to this day

and proudly displays
photographs of fitzgerald

alongside those
of its many other famous guests.

during america's gilded age,

asheville was also
a popular getaway spot

for america's
richest industrialists,

including the edisons,
rockefellers, and vanderbilts,

some of whom built
country homes here.

one of them

is the largest private house
in the united states.

the biltmore estate was
constructed in the 1890s

by 26-year-old
george washington vanderbilt,

grandson
of cornelius vanderbilt,

the famous new york
railroad tycoon.

with virtually unlimited
resources at his disposal,

vanderbilt's french
renaissance-style estate

took more than
six years to build,

and was such
a massive undertaking,

it required
its own brick-making factory

and a private railway
for delivering materials.

the finished 250-room mansion

has 34 bedrooms
and 43 bathrooms.

when it came to designing
the biltmore's grounds,

george vanderbilt
hired the best of the best,

frederic olmstead,

the landscape architect who
created new york's central park.

olmstead designed formal gardens
close to the house,

but he also regenerated
forest areas around the estate

by transplanting trees
and encouraging new growth.

it was one of the country's

very first
forest conservation projects.

during the great depression,

ashville's tourist trade
was in decline.

so the vanderbilt family

agreed to open the biltmore
for public tours.

today the estate is visited

by more than a million people
a year.

while the biltmore
was under construction,

george vanderbilt began acquiring
acreage around the property

to use as
a private hunting retreat.

this is just one
of the parcels he bought--

mount pisgah.

logging here had cut wide gashes
into the landscape.

but vanderbilt hired foresters
to manage the land

and bring this forest
back to life.

one of these,
german-born carl schenck,

went on to establish
the biltmore forest school,

the first of its kind
in the united states.

in 1914, the u.s. government
bought 87,000 acres of this land

from his estate

and turned it into
the pisgah national forest.

it's best known
as the home to cold mountain,

the title of the bestselling
civil war novel

written by asheville native
charles frazier,

and later adapted into a film
by anthony minghella.

straddling the north carolina-
tennessee border

is the great smoky mountains
national park,

the most visited national park
in america.

these great giants

were formed some 200 to 300
million years ago.

they are at least three times
older than the rockies.

the cherokee,
who once made their home here,

called this mountain range
"the place of blue smoke,"

because of the haze

that regularly envelops
the mountaintops.

lumber companies rolled in

at the beginning
of the 20th century

and nearly destroyed
these forests for good,

chopping down two-thirds
of the trees in just 20 years.

thanks to widespread protests
against clear-cutting,

congress turned this land
into a national park in 1934.

since then, the smoky mountain
forests have rebounded well

and now support
nearly 400 animal species.

while the state's
coast and mountains

are known
for their unspoiled beauty,

a world away stands charlotte,

the biggest city
in north carolina.

named for princess charlotte
of mecklenburg,

king george iii's wife,

this has been a bustling town
ever since the late 1700s,

when the first gold nugget
ever found in the u.s.

was discovered nearby.

during the late 20th century,

charlotte transformed itself

from a sleepy
textile manufacturing town

into a slick
financial services hub,

the country's second largest
after new york.

rising 60 stories,

the bank of america
corporate center,

completed in 1992,

isn't just the tallest building
on the charlotte skyline;

it's the tallest
in the entire state.

all of the high-rises here

are a reminder of charlotte's
business prowess.

but one of the town's
most important industries

is good old-fashioned
car racing.

nascar, the national association
for stock car auto racing,

is headquartered in florida,

but it calls charlotte
its hometown.

three-quarters of its employees
are based in or around the city.

today, nascar is america's
fastest growing sport,

second only to the nfl
when it comes to tv viewers.

and fans come here,

to the charlotte motor speedway,
just north of the city.

built in 1959,

the speedway has emerged
as a leading nascar racetrack.

nine out of ten nascar teams
are based close by,

thrilling sellout crowds
with their exhilarating speed.

just 20 miles away,
the town of kannapolis

celebrates the sport
of auto racing in a quieter way.

this is the hometown

of legendary driver,
dale earnhardt,

and it was here
that he first developed

the aggressive driving
techniques

that later earned him
the nickname "the intimidator."

earnhardt was killed

on the last lap
of the 2001 daytona 500

when his car smashed into
a concrete retaining wall

at 160 miles an hour.

in his memory,

kannapolis renamed
its major thoroughfare

dale earnhardt boulevard

and erected a 9-foot-tall
bronze statue in his honor.

there are seven steps descending
into the racetrack-shaped plaza,

each representing one
of the seven championships

earnhardt won
over his brilliant career.

set on the cape fear river

just 20 miles
from the atlantic ocean,

wilmington, north carolina,
is also known as "port city."

during the civil war,

wilmington played a critical
role for the confederate army.

fort fisher,

nicknamed the "gibraltar
of the confederacy,"

guarded over the port,

which was part
of a key supply route

to confederate troops
stationed inland.

on january 15, 1865,

union troops
attacked from the sea

and defeated the fort.

the loss
of this vital supply route

contributed to the south's
imminent surrender.

moored just across the river
from downtown

is the uss north carolina.

when this ship
was first launched

from the new york navy yard
in brooklyn in 1940,

she was considered
one of the greatest weapons

in the navy's arsenal.

the first of ten
high-speed battleships

built for world war ii,

her main job

was to protect aircraft carriers
from enemy attack.

it took more than 2,000 sailors
to operate the ship.

the uss north carolina
served nobly during the war,

sailing over 300,000 miles

and seeing action
in every major pacific battle,

including iwo jima
and guadalcanal.

on six occasions,

the japanese claimed
to have sunk this ship,

but she skirted disaster
every time,

though she did survive
plenty of near misses,

including a collision
with a japanese torpedo in 1942.

all told, she only lost ten men
during the entire war.

the uss north carolina was
de-commissioned in june 1947

and scheduled to be
turned into scrap metal.

but the people of north carolina
wouldn't hear of it.

thanks to a statewide campaign,
the ship was saved

and brought to its new home
here in wilmington in 1961.

but there's much more
to wilmington

than its military history.

it's also known
for its picturesque coast.

this stretch of sand,
called holden beach,

looks much as it has
for the last fifty years.

offshore, shrimp boats head home
with the day's catch.

it's no wonder this coast

has drawn the attention
of hollywood's cameras.

movie watchers might recognize
this very beach

in the background
of a film or tv show.

more than 400 motion pictures
and television shows

have been produced
in wilmington,

including "blue velvet,"
"forrest gump,"

and "the hudsucker proxy."

movie producer frank capra, jr.,

was so smitten with
this area of north carolina,

he talked his friend,

the late italian filmmaker
dino de laurentiis,

into building a studio here.

their company,
screen gems studios,

remains one of the largest tv
and movie production companies

outside of hollywood.

from its sunlit outer banks,
where pirates once reigned,

to dark inland forests

and a rocky peak that's guided
travelers for centuries,

north carolina by air

is a chance to understand
the compelling history

of one of america's
first colonies.

from stories
of its earliest inhabitants

and the europeans who tried
to settle its shores

to the four civil rights heroes

who dared
to challenge its rules,

today north carolina is home
to enduring mystery,

giant industry,

and famous institutions

that may be
this southern state's

greatest legacy of all.